A witness said yesterday he saw a murder accused hit the victim in the neck with a slash hook during a fight outside a public house in Dublin.
A member of the victim's family said there was "bad blood" between the two families in the fracas. He alleged the accused man's family "killed two in my family already and they raped another".
Mr David McDonagh (44), of St Joseph's Park, Dunsink, Finglas, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Timothy Joyce (46), of Lydd Caravan Site, Romney Marshes, Kent, on November 9th, 1996, at St Helena's Drive, Finglas, Dublin.
He has also pleaded not guilty to charges of violent disorder and possession of a billhook intended to cause injury or to intimidate at St Helena's Drive on the same date.
The jury heard that gardai recovered 26 weapons from the scene of the killing, including an axe, a sword, various slash hooks, a meat cleaver, a lump hammer and the leg of a stool.
In the Central Criminal Court, before Mr Justice Carney, a second cousin of the deceased, also named Timothy Joyce, said that a fight started at a pub in Finglas and continued outside.
Mr Joyce said he and his family were attending a funeral in Tullamore and had gone to the Finglas pub while waiting for the departure of the ferry to the UK later that night. They went there "because it was the only pub that would let a group of Travellers in", he said.
A row broke out there between himself and another man. When he left the pub, he found two wheels on one of his family's van tyres had been slashed. A group of men then emerged from another van, he alleged. He turned and looked for bottles and stones for protection.
He then saw Mr David McDonagh hit the deceased "up around the neck" with a slash hook, he alleged. "Once is all I saw," he said.
He agreed with Mr Gregory Murphy SC, prosecuting, that he picked the accused out from a line-up in Finglas Garda station. Asked by Mr John Whelan SC, defending, if there were any other Travellers in the line-up, he said if there were he did not recognise them. He told Mr Whelan that during the row he himself had a bar stool as a weapon.
Another witness, Mr Joseph Joyce, said there were 15 or 16 members of his family outside the pub, and "13 or 14 McDonaghs". There was "bad blood" between the two families, he said, "because they killed two of my family already and they raped another".
Shown a billhook in court, Joseph Joyce said the accused had one like it in his hand during the fight.
Mr Patrick Joyce was tendered by the prosecution for cross-examination. He told Mr Whelan that during the fracas he saw "out of the corner of my eye" a man other than the accused hitting Timothy Joyce.
"I was all confused at the time. I was drunk and had speed taken," he said.
He told Mr Murphy that speed was a drug that "puts your head going" and he was not saying the accused had not done what other witnesses had alleged.
The trial continues on Monday before Mr Justice Carney and a jury.